Then He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her,
Talitha koum;
which is, being interpreted,
Damsel, I say unto thee,
ARISE."

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Adult SCR - 80+++. ESCR - 000

US News &World Report just reported yet another potential success using adult-donated stem cells in research. Adult stem cells have been induced with antigens to multiply and become neural-like cells, which researchers confirmed resemble mature brain cells.

From the story,

"The cells proliferated, but also started becoming long and thin and attaching to the bottom of the dish," which is reminiscent of behavior of neural cells, Jia Xie, a research associate on Lerner's team, said in a released statement. Further tests confirmed that they were neural progenitor cells, which are very similar to mature brain cells.

Good news on the ethical front. As more and more successes are seen on the side of ASCR, the need and desire for ESCR becomes fainter and more irrelevant. Of course, the scientific cannibalism of fetuses for their parts has never been ethically acceptable for those of us with problems with murder or that sort of thing. With each ASCR success, perhaps scientists and politicians will decide not to give any more public funding to the legacy of Dr. Moreau. But I'm not holding my breath yet.